Help Out With My Bags? Are You Kidding Me?!

I made a rare trip to Kowalski's, our nearby Lexus of supermarkets, the other day. I still can't get over it, when I have one puny bag, containing the half-dozen convenience items I bought there, and the bag-boy wants to carry my grocery bag out for me. I am an able-bodied person, there is NO WAY I am letting someone do something for me that I am perfectly capable of doing, while I stand around and watch.

As I was driving away, I saw that very scene playing itself out, but, to me, at the next level of "no way!". A middle-age man, seemingly fit (but who knows, maybe he had a physical handicap), walking to his car, trailed by a 17-year old girl, pushing out his bags! I'm sorry, maybe I am old-fashioned, but that is just too much!.

I guess I have a little bit of ascetic or puritan or something in me. I just hate the idea of letting someone do stuff for me, when I am perfectly capable of doing it, and wouldn't even actually be saving time by out-sourcing the effort. It just seems lazy and decadent to me. I guess other people may consider it pleasant pampering. It's just not for me. It feels to me like another example of what I would call "cultivating weakness".

I guess my perspective is that if one is "able-bodied", one should certainly be grateful. And demonstrate one's gratitude by using the physical ability. For one thing, I think there is ultimately some risk of "use it or lose it" (in the very long term).

I have something of an ideology around this topic...maybe someday I will get around to thinking it through and writing it up.